Calgary Civic Election: Ward 6 Discussion

[Ducay]

Looks like Hard Poo Man is gaining more ground, he put up a couple more signs last night

[Torrey Swan]

Yeah I see his book can now be downloaded from his website on the About Me page. Before it was super confusing, you had to click on the picture of the book on his site and go to the book site and then click download and then the small buttom for Read the Book. Much easier now. He has also posted much more information on specific ward six issues and moved a little deeper than the general positions he had up before.

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Is he actually published? His website says he wrote a book but I can't find any reference to it anywhere else. I looked because I was hoping to find some sort of summary of it at least to get an idea what he might stand for, since like all the other Ward 6 candidates his website is pretty vague when it comes to actual policy or where he stands on the major issues.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Torrey Swan

Yeah I see his book can now be downloaded from his website on the About Me page. Before it was super confusing, you had to click on the picture of the book on his site and go to the book site and then click download and then the small buttom for Read the Book. Much easier now. He has also posted much more information on specific ward six issues and moved a little deeper than the general positions he had up before.

I quickly skimmed a few parts of his book - doesn't really come across as "Anders-lite" like someone had alluded earlier. His position on the ring road is also pretty similar to my own. I'll have to read a bit more.

Did anyone make it to the forum last night?

[Torrey Swan]

Yeah I was there. Good turn out of ~200 people. The Civic Camp format worked really well too. People mostly stuck to the questions and the issues, but Yannitsos came down pretty hard on Pootmans twice for not being living in the ward. I guess he sees him as his competition. Pootmans finally responded but I do not think he came off very strong at the forum. Ken Roger spoke well. A couple people commented that it is actually a shame we had such a strong slate of candidates when several wards have so few people running. Only one of these guys is going to get to Council. If the forum is any indication i would say it is a race between Yannitsos, Royer, Miekle and maybe Pootmans. I am just worried with so many people running the vote is really going to split and the best candidate may not be elected.

[Ducay]

Was Yannitsos any good? His image (yes I judge) makes him come off as....a bit out of touch.

[Cheese]

doh...wrong place

[Ducay]

So.....any one else's thoughts from that forum a few nights back?

[Misterpants]

Is Brent Mielke still monitoring this thread? Also does anyone know if any of the candidates have come out with plans for HWY 8?

[Ashartus]

There's a poll up on votecalgary.ca. It shows Pootmans in the lead with 8% (but only 3% "firm intention"), Royer second at 5%, and Mielke and Yannitsos tied for third at 4%. However, if you just look at voters with "firm intention", the top four are basically tied.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Misterpants

Is Brent Mielke still monitoring this thread? Also does anyone know if any of the candidates have come out with plans for HWY 8?

Most of them don't have much on their websites (probably partly because it's largely a provincial responsibility). John Yannitsos (http://johnyannitsos.com/vision.html) and Randy Royer (http://www.randyroyer.com/) have a bit on their websites, and Brent Mielke has some discussion on his blog (http://runwithbrent.ca/wordpress/).

[Ashartus]

Ouch. Just read Royer's response to the question about smoking in cars with children at voteforhealth.ca: "This is uninforrceable. I would rather their health care premiums be hiked." Can't spell, and doesn't realize we don't have health care premiums anymore. Plus he wants to shut down 34th Ave. I guess he's off my short list.

[Bunk]

These aldermanic polls are pretty weak. 5.8% margin of error means that in virtually all non-incumbant wards every candidate has less support than the overall margin of error. Also, very weak demographic representation.

[Torrey Swan]

Yeah the poll's only conclusive findings- being that its magin of error is 5.8% at a 95% confidence (i.e. larger than most of the support indicated for the leaders)- is that 60% of respondents have not yet decided. The poll was asked between Sept 21 and 3 so that has likley change a bit. I wish there would be another poll done next week but I do not think the UDI/CHBA have that planned.

John came across very passionate about service, he used a 5 question method to answer policy questions (three times)- something like what is the issue, who does it effect positively, who negatively, can be done, for how much , what is the solution- and made a plea to not vote for someone out of the ward (twice). That was John's performance. Oh and he mentioned that he is the president of the Greekfest.

[Ducay]

Comments on Mielke and Pootmans (I know its been touched one)?

Im still totally torn between candidates. They're all just so......interchangable

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Comments on Mielke and Pootmans (I know its been touched one)?

Im still totally torn between candidates. They're all just so......interchangable

I think Pootmans appears to have more qualifications, but lives outside the ward. Mielke lives in the ward and seems to me to have a much better grasp of the issues.

I agree they all look pretty similar on paper. Since they're also effectively tied in the polls, we'll end up with pretty much a random candidate off the list, and it will be luck of the draw whether we end up with a good alderman or a poor one.

[Misterpants]

And with 11 candidates, it makes it darn near impossible to research each one to see if their ideas align with my own. I find with Aldermanic elections, it most often comes down to voting for the candidate that put forth the most effort to contact me about the issues. Congrats Brent, you have just won a vote with your new CP account!

[mandm]

Hi there - full disclosure, I actually came across this website trying to find some Calgary poltical forums. Though I root for the Flames, I'm not a hockey die-hard. But I do love politics and you guys seem the most enaged so far.

Anyway, I've been to two of the debates now with the Ward 6 Aldermen - a traffic one in Richmond Hill, where I live, and the Civicamp one. I was on the fence in terms of who to vote for but I think I'm going with Yannitsos. He came across very strongly in both debates. I live on a busy street in Richmond Hill and about 1/3 of the people at that forum want access to our street shut down and the other 2/3 don't but that 1/3 tends to be the most vocal. I was leaning towards Royer until he basically pandered to that 1/3 and made ridiculous promises that he can't keep. Mielke was good, but I just think Yannitsos has a better governance background as well as a commitment to cultural events. Incidentally, he was also the only person to offer condolensces to Coral Turner (who had a death in the family and couldn't be there) and direct people to talk to her husband. Even the moderator didn't do that until after Yannitsos did it first. At the RH debate, he was the only one to congratulate all the candidates. I am a sucker for social grace I guess, and I thought they were kind and generous things to do, and they came off as genuine. he also made a couple of self-deprecating jokes which I found kind of charming, since all those guys seemed to be taking themselves SOOOO seriously.

Royers mixed up the meaning of cognizant and cognitive and kept using the word densiVIcation, which annoyed me bcs I'd like my rep to understand the big words he uses (or makes up in that case). Pootmans doesn't live in the Ward and I think he's actually a pod person trying to steal the earth's water. The other candidates came off as pretty nice guys who have worked hard in their communities, but I just thought Yannitsos has the better background and policy stands. Oh, and Pootmans didn't know what a conflict of interest was either. That was encouraging!

With no more debates until election day, that's where I stand right now. I'm really enjoying the discussion here. Please don't kick me off or flame me. Go Flames!

[Kjesse]

I've pretty much all but settled on voting for Yannitsos. He lives in the ward, his views on city issues are quite similar to my own. I thought he was quite well spoken when I saw some videos he was in.

[Ducay]

Yannitsos went from my poopoo list to a front runner.

I think its between Yani and the Milk-man for me

[frinkprof]

Just elect someone better than Connelly.

Please.